Daryll Rowe, first person in England guilty of purposely infecting men with HIV, gets life sentence

Daryll Rowe was convicted on five counts of grievous bodily harm with intent for lying to his sexual partners about his HIV diagnosis and then purposely trying to transmit the virus to them. On Wednesday, a judge sentenced Rowe to a life sentence with a minimum of 12 years in prison.

Lewes, England — Hairdresser Daryll Rowe infected five men he had unprotected sex with and sabotaged the condoms of another five in the English towns of Brighton and Northumberland.

He also texted mocking messages to some of the men after having sex with them, including “I have HIV LOL. Oops!” and “I’m riddled”.

The BBC reported

During the six-week trial the prosecution described Rowe’s actions as a “campaign” to infect as many men as possible over a four-month period starting in October 2015 across the Brighton area.

He had relations with eight men he met on dating app Grindr, before moving to Northumberland and having unprotected sex with another two men later in 2016.

Speaking after the verdict, Nigel Pilkington, deputy chief crown prosecutor in the South East, said he believed there “may well be more men out there” who had fallen victim to Rowe, of no fixed address.

During the trial Rowe, 27, claimed to believe months of drinking his own urine cured him of the virus.

It is not known whether or not Rowe drank the urine out of a coffee urn.